About 1.4 million children under the age of five are malnourished in South Sudan, the country facing its
"worst hunger crisis"
due in part to successive floods and armed conflicts, estimated on Friday. October 14 the NGO Save The Children.
The youngest country on the planet, plagued by politico-ethnic violence and chronic instability since its independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan has suffered floods for the fourth consecutive year, and these now affect nine of its ten states.
According to the United Nations, 8.9 million people, or 71% of the population, are in need of humanitarian aid.
“This includes 1.4 million children under 5 who are malnourished
,” Save the Children wrote in a statement.
"The situation has worsened in recent months with more than 615,000 people affected by a fourth year of unprecedented flooding, destroying homes, crops, and causing an increase in cases of malaria and snakebites, particularly among women and children”
, according to the NGO.
A currency that has lost 40% of its value
The currency of this landlocked East African country has lost 40% of its value this year, leading to an increase in the prices of imported products, also pushed by the war in Ukraine, underlines the same source.
“South Sudan is among the five most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change,”
said Jib Rabiltossaporn, director of Save the Children in South Sudan.
Ahead of COP 27, which opens in November in Egypt, Save the Children urged the international community to
"increase their financial commitments to help vulnerable communities and children cope with (...) climate-related disasters »
.
According to the World Bank, 80% of South Sudan's 11 million people lived in
"extreme poverty"
in 2018.